The invention relates to a cassette for holding a magnetic tape which is guided inside the cassette along a side wall thereof which has an access opening through which at least one magnetic head can be brought into scanning contact with the magnetic tape, which cassette comprises a pad-like elastic pressure member adapted to press the magnetic tape against the magnetic head, which pressure member is movable transversely of the side wall between a rest position and at least one contact position and is secured to a central portion of a substantially strip-shaped blade-spring-like pressure-member support which is arranged to extend substantially parallel to the side wall provided with the access opening and whose side portions, which are situated adjacent the central portion, can be made to cooperate with positioning elements of the cassette with their lateral surfaces which are remote from the side wall, and two tape-guide elements adapted to guide a magnetic tape past the magnetic head, which tape-guide elements are movable substantially transversely of the side wall and are arranged substantially mirror-symmetrically relative to the pressure member on a substantially strip-shaped blade-spring-like tape-guide-element support which is arranged to extend substantially parallel to the side wall and substantially between the pressure-member support and the side wall and has side portions which are situated adjacent its central portion and which can be made to cooperate with positioning elements of the cassette with their lateral surfaces which face the side wall.
The invention further relates to a pressure-member support for such a cassette, which support is of a strip-shaped and blade-spring-like construction and comprises a central portion for securing a pressure member and, situated adjacent the central portion, two side portions adapted to cooperate with positioning elements of the cassette.
A cassette of the type defined in the opening paragraph is known from, for example, EP 0,492,705 A1. In this known cassette the blade-spring-like pressure-member support and the side portions of the blade-spring-like pressure-member support have a flat shape, the side portions of the two supports extending parallel to the cassette side wall provided with the access opening. The two supports each comprise a right-angled tab only at the ends of the side portions, two adjacent tabs being displaced relative to one another in such a manner that these two portions can each perform a movement without touching the other portion, which movement occurs when the pressure member and the tape guide elements cooperate with a magnetic head. When the pressure member is in its rest position and the tape guide elements are in their rest positions, i.e. when these parts do not cooperate with a magnetic head, the pressure-member support and the tape-guide-element support are arranged loosely between the positioning elements provided to cooperate with these two supports. As a result of this loose arrangement of the two supports the two loose supports may produce an annoying noise when the cassette is subjected to shocks or vibrations. Moreover, as a result of this loose arrangement of the two supports both the pressure member and the two tape-guide elements may assume a comparatively large inclination relative to the magnetic tape, which is unfavourable because when the magnetic tape is positioned against a magnetic head by means of the pressure member and the tape guide elements the pressure member and the tape guide elements subject the magnetic tape to forces which tend to urge the magnetic tape out of its normal path.
Moreover, if a magnetic head enters the access opening of the prior-art cassette over a comparatively small penetration depth only and, consequently, the pressure member and the pressure-member support carrying this member are moved only over a comparatively small distance, the pressure-member support exerts only a comparatively small pressure, as a result of which the magnetic tape is not pressed satisfactorily against the magnetic head and the scanning process may be disturbed. Such a movement over a small distance may occur, for example, in a so-called search mode, in which the magnetic head is introduced into the cassette with a smaller penetration depth than during a normal recording and reproducing mode, in which the magnetic head is introduced into the cassette through the access opening over a larger penetration depth.